


Aftermath

by Meynara



Series: Drabbles and ficlets from Tumblr [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, honestly mostly just Hunk, honestly sits somewhere between a story and a headcanon, introspective Hunk, spoilers for end of s2 and s3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 16:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12324447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meynara/pseuds/Meynara
Summary: He might be the cheerful, supportive scaredycat -- but Hunk grieved, too.





	Aftermath

Immediately following the aftermath of the last battle with Zarkon (or at least, the last battle assuming season 4 onwards doesn’t change it), emotions were running high. On the one hand, things were going well. The Galra had been seriously hindered, Zarkon seriously injured and unable to retaliate, it should’ve been easy to remain happy with just those two things. The things they’d been fighting for since they had been taken away by the Blue Lion on Earth, however long ago.

But leaving their lions, running to the hangar where the Black Lion and the leader of their team, their family, should have been waiting, only cast a shadow over the entire situation.

Shiro was gone. His bayard was still where it had been inserted, but not a trace of him remained – not even a single hair, almost as if he’d never been in there in the first place. (Of course, they knew that wasn’t true, he’d been there – he’d been with them, they’d been able to form Voltron in the first place – but why wasn’t he here now, when the biggest battle of their lives was over?)

At first, everyone had been trying their hardest to find him. How could a person vanish from inside a lion in the midst of space? He wasn’t floating among the debris, nothing had picked up on his signature anywhere. They had kept an ear out, when visiting planets, helping people – maybe there would be a hint of his survival left somewhere. He couldn’t just be gone, he couldn’t.

Hunk did what he always did. He made what food he could manage from the supplies on the castleship, what they’d find on their travels, trying to make it palatable for his fellow Paladins. 

Keeping an eye on Pidge, trying to keep her from working too hard – between searching for her dad and brother, and Shiro, and their duties as Paladins, it couldn’t be easy on her. 

Making sure Keith hadn’t trained himself into exhaustion, hadn’t left the castle again without any backup (though he managed to do so often, Hunk tried to prevent it if he could). 

Lance was the easiest, yet hardest of them all to read. Shiro had been his hero…but he was also his friend. Of course, Lance being Lance, he had only seemed to get louder, rowdier than before – but anyone who knew him could tell, he wasn’t as sincere as he had been before. All Hunk could really do for him was be there.

Allura and Coran, he wasn’t as close to – couldn’t read as well – but he tried his best to help them as well. Food and hugs were fairly universal comforts, after all.

When Allura had told them they needed to find a new Paladin for the Black Lion, even as he volunteered, Hunk hoped there wouldn’t be a fit. That Shiro would come back to them, and they’d be a team again, and everyone would be happy once more.

Of course, life goes on. Even the lions recognized that, and when Keith was chosen, all Hunk could do was support it – support the lion’s choice, and the fact that their team dynamic would never be the same. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what they’d known, wasn’t what they were comfortable with, and it was hard.

The first fight after the switch around, after Keith and Lance had changed lions, and Allura had joined in the fighting proper – that had been one of the hardest nights since Shiro left. Because the world couldn’t wait any longer for Voltron, no matter how much they wanted to wait for Shiro, how much they needed training to learn to work together again.

But it was almost like a slap to the face, when shortly after that, Shiro was returned to them. When they’d finally ‘manned up’ and moved on, acknowledged that the world wasn’t a kind place – the universe wasn’t a kind place – they got him back.

That night, alone in his room, Hunk cried.

**Author's Note:**

> this is what happens when someone says something that goes against my own headcanon for how characters felt in times not covered by the series. Someone mentioned that the team didn't care that Shiro was gone.
> 
> But man, did they ever.


End file.
